JIMMY SMOTHERS: The facts about 'Gallant Pelham'

By Jimmy SmothersTimes Sports Editor Emeritus

Published: Sunday, March 10, 2013 at 6:01 a.m.

Last Modified: Friday, March 8, 2013 at 5:24 p.m.

It’s been almost 150 years since John Pelham was fatally wounded in a cavalry charge at Kelly’s Ford during the War Between the States. But his name is back in the news as a group of volunteers from the Jacksonville area plans a “Gallant Pelham Commemoration” next weekend in the town square and at his gravesite in the historic cemetery just down the road.

Just as the recent movie, “Lincoln,” had history scholars going to theaters with pad and pen to take note of the historical errors, the current attention being paid to Pelham has area Civil War buffs checking out the various details on one of Calhoun County’s more famous Confederate officers.

Joseph M. Maloney, one of the commemoration’s leaders, doesn’t dodge the varying differences in history books, but adds to them.

“His rank is one subject of confusion,” Maloney said last week when asked about different books listing varying facts about Pelham. “At the time of his death, Pelham was a major.”

Some history books list him as a lieutenant colonel. Maloney said he was posthumously promoted to that rank.

One encyclopedia lists Pelham as dying on March 17, 1863, at age 24. It reports that a piece of an exploding artillery shell from a Northern gun stuck him in the head on March 17. The report says he was carried from the battlefield and died the following morning at Culpeper Courthouse without having regained consciousness. That would have been March 18.

Maloney said Pelham was mortally wounded on the 17th, which is a known fact.

“One book states he died that night (indicating the 17th), but two other books place the time of death at 1 a.m. on the 18th,” he said.

The commemoration committee is going with the 17th, because that will be on Sunday and the last day of the weekend event.

There even are some differences on who initially gave the daring artillery officer the nickname “Gallant Pelham,” since different stories quote Gens. Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and J.E.B. Stuart as having referred to him thusly at various times.

Lee once commended Pelham for “unflinching courage” while under direct fire from the enemy. Jackson once reported it was “extraordinary to find such nerve and genius in a mere boy.”

Pelham left West Point just a few weeks before graduation to accept a commission in the Confederate Army back home in Alabama. But he was assigned to Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s unit in Virginia as a lieutenant in the artillery. Pelham quickly caught the eye of Stuart, who provided horses for him to form a “horse artillery” battery. Pelham could then move his guns quickly, breaking up Union battle formations and harassing their flanks.

Jackson once said, “If I had a Pelham on each flank I believe I could whip the world.”

Pelham was in 60 battles, every one of Stuart’s engagements from First Manassas to the Battle of Kellysville. When his battery was not engaged at Kelly Ford, he joined in the cavalry charge. It is said he was standing in his stirrups, urging the Rebs to press forward to victory, when he was fatally wounded.

Stuart wrote that “his noble nature and purity of character are enshrined as a sacred legacy in the hearts of all who knew him.”

Maloney’s office in Jacksonville is in “Tens Oaks” on Pelham Road South. The antebellum home once was the headquarters of Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard during the time that Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman was in Atlanta. Maloney pointed out that Beauregard had been the commandant at West Point during Pelham’s last semester and, allegedly, discussed with Pelham the moral dilemma facing Southern officers and cadets in early 1861. When the war started, both left West Point to fight for the South.

Pelham was born in 1838 in his grandparents’ home on the family’s 1,000-acre plantation. The plantation ran along Cane Creek and the house was near Alexandria. However, the family attended church in Jacksonville and Pelham’s body was returned there for burial.

Growing up, Pelham worked with horses and once rode the family cow so hard that it stopped giving milk. It is said his father told him next time he wanted to ride a cow, to pick a bull.

Pelham was so popular during his military service with the Confederate Army that various sites carry his name today. The place where he earned the name “Gallant Pelham” has been purchased by a preservation group. North and South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama have towns named after him; Georgia also has a Pelham Highway.

The county of Culpeper, Va., named a lake in his honor. Stuart named a child after him. The U.S. Field Artillery once was housed at Camp Pelham.

Pelham’s portrait hangs with those of other Confederate officers in Alexandria, Va., and in 1894 a poem was written about him.

Mathew Brady took a photograph of Pelham in his West Point uniform in 1858, when he was 20 years old. It became well known throughout the South and many copies were sold. The original print stayed in the family and was thought to have been lost over time. But it was found a few years ago in a fireproof safe, and in 2010 Pelham’s great-great-grand-nephew sold it at auction. The sale price has been listed at $41,825.

In 1955, Pelham was named to the Alabama Hall of Fame, and the John Pelham Historical Association seeks to maintain his memory and preserve his archive of papers and memorabilia.

People who attend next Sunday’s commemorative ceremony at his gravesite will see a statue of the Gallant Pelham overlooking the proceedings.

Jimmy Smothers can be reached at jmmys1@aol.com. His new book, “The Game,” may be purchased at The Gadsden Times’ customer service desk.

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